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Picket Firing Rouses The 81st Illinois Into Line O

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A war-date Union soldier's letter: 3pp. 8vo., written in ink, by Corp. Jordan Carroll Harris, Co. A, 81st Ill., Camp at Humboldt, Tenn., Oct. 14, 1862, it reads in part: "...Our company is enjoying the sweets of healthfulness. The captain Abel Deason & almost all the sick we left at Cairo have been restored to us. But we have to regret the absence of G.W. Kellogg who is too sick with the Typhoid fever to leave the place of the soldier's abhorrence...We draw flour now & have a woman to cook it inot biscuits...When we come in contact with property belonging to a disloyal person which we need we make use of it. I haven't taken any yet nor don't wish to but some of the boys I fear do wrong in not being careful how they take things which do not belong to them...In my dreams last night I facied I was in the presence of the one I love and holding a pleasant conversation with the same when suddenly I was aroused by the sharp reports of guns firing in the direction of the pickets the alarming sound of the 'soul stirring drum' and the loud and urgent commands of the officers to rally & form in line of battle which was about 2 o'clock. The line was formed as soon as possible & we stood awaiting an assault for some time when the order came to return to tents & sleep on our arms...Wm Carner does our cooking at present and has a negro boy for a waiter...". Original cover is included. Harriss was captured with a majority of his regiment at Guntown, Miss. on June 10, 1864 and sent to Andersonville prison. After his exchange, he was mustered out with his regiment at the end of the war. Light toning, else very good.

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